VSCM and three other advocacy groups scheduled an Informed Consent Reception and Briefing for state legislators Feb. 7 at the Minneapolis Club, a private downtown venue. The panel discussion with health professionals is limited to just Minnesota legislators, by invitation only – no press, no public. The other groups hosting the event are Health Choice, Informed Consent Action Network, and Physicians for Informed Consent.

On January 29 Ashleigh Towers, a MVFC volunteer, emailed state legislators invitations to the private event. At least one legislator forwarded that email to Jill Burcum, a Star Tribune editorial writer since March 2008. Towers called that a betrayal of trust. “It’s deeply disturbing that a representative would forward the email to a newspaper writer, rather than simply ignore the invite or politely decline it,” said Towers. “This person is a public official who is supposed to represent the people, not feed them to the media.”

The Star Tribune’s Burcum, after reading the phrase “legislators only,” sent a series of imperious emails to Towers:

Burcum: “Is this event open to the public as well?”

Towers: “No, it’s legislators only. If you have any other questions I recommend reaching out to the organization directly via the form [VSCM address].”

Burcum: “Is it open to the media?”

Towers: “No media in the briefing. Please direct any further communication to [VSCM address].”

Burcum: “What is your role with this organization?”

Burcum: (2 hours later) “I’d like an answer. Are you a contract public relations person? Volunteer? What’s your role and why can’t you answer questions?”

Towers: “You reached out to me unsolicited… I will tell you that I am a volunteer and twice I advised you to ask your questions elsewhere… This is the last communication I am sending you. My role is parent, volunteering for a cause that is important to me. Now, I’d like for you to stop emailing me, personally. If you have further questions, feel free to submit the contact form in the link I’ve sent to you twice already. Thank you for respecting my wishes.”

Burcum: “Let this be an educational moment. You volunteered for a cause. Your name and contact info was on the email distributed to the Minnesota Legislature. The topic clearly involves changing public healthy [sic] policy. You should have realized what that meant in terms of your personal privacy and the questions you would get about this. Learn from this, please.”

Towers then wrote a letter of complaint to Star Tribune administrators. “Jill [Burcum]’s harassing behavior is just the icing on the cake and solidifies my distrust in the mainstream media,” said Towers. “In fact, this whole situation proves to me that government and media are out for their own agendas and cannot be trusted.”

“Minnesota legislators got an invite for a legislator-only ‘informational briefing’ February 7 at the Minneapolis Club sponsored by, get this, Minnesota Vaccine Freedom Coalition, ‘which represents thousands of Minnesotans who fight for informed consent with regard to vaccination,’ according to the invite. ‘Vaccine policy and pending vaccine legislation will be presented, with an opportunity to discuss these with advocates and other legislators.’ Someone be sure to go and tell me which legislators are there because the public should know of their interest.”

On Wednesday, January 31 Hot Dish ran a second blurb (odd comma usage is theirs):

“A Tuesday nugget about a ‘legislator-only’ briefing at the Minneapolis Club given by, among others the Vaccine Safety Council, drew a lot of reader interest, especially in the sake of last year’s measles outbreak, which was caused by people not getting their children vaccinated, especially in Somali-American communities.”

The Strib blurb also harangued local autism clinic founder Jennifer Larson of Health Choice and VSCM for making contributions to the Republican Party. In the past some critics have nicknamed that newspaper the “Red Star Tribune,” claiming its writing caters to the political left.

Members of MVFC felt bullied. “Imagine that a child was killed or permanently disabled by a drunk driver, and her mother contacted elected officials to invite them to an event being held by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers,” said Patti Carroll, parent of a vaccine-injured child and member of VSCM and Health Choice. “Would Star Tribune editorial writers harass that mother for exercising her right as a citizen? Of course not. So why would it be okay for them to harass parents of children who were killed or disabled by vaccines?”

Journalists cannot speak authoritatively on a topic when they limit references to only one facet of an issue. Over the past decade the Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial board has repeatedly refused to meet with informed choice advocates or families struggling with vaccine-induced injuries or death. Thus the newspaper’s board has backed itself into a credibility corner, by remaining silent about Centers for Disease Control vaccine data fraud for two decades as autism rates skyrocketed and documented evidence mounted. At this point the Star Tribune has two choices: (1) double down even more harshly, to the benefit of their denialist community partners; or (2) start backpedaling, before society crumbles any further under the unsustainable weight of an increasingly disabled population.

To people on the defensive, veritas odium parit: “truth begets hatred.” On February 3 the Star Tribune ran a vitriolic op-ed with the inflammatory and inaccurate title, “Fringe anti-vaccine groups peddle misinformation to Minnesota legislators.” Loaded with the usual clichés – “notorious,” “secretive,” “dangerous,” “propaganda,” “debunked”) the screed casts shame on any legislator who might choose to attend the informational briefing on informed choice rights.

The Star Tribune op-ed also promoted a local medical trade union that profits financially from legislation that will increasing vaccine doses through mandates, and which bears no responsibility for diagnosing, treating or preventing adverse reactions. (Note: Physicians in that union will meet with their legislators March 14 at the Capitol). The op-ed also claims VSCM or MVFC “did not respond to an editorial writer’s other questions,” though editorial writer Burcum failed to go through proper communication channels as directed.

The Star Tribune shunned input from physician event sponsors who support informed choice in vaccine decision-making. But in the medical community, individual vaccine choice varies widely based on personal experience. In another state, Dr. Heather Revelis, M.D. & Dr. Andrew Revelis, M.D. “would not view the removal of personal and religious vaccine exemptions rights… as a success.” “Each child is unique, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to any medical treatment,” say the Drs. Revelis, “Vaccines are not risk-free.”

“I have a disabled child, and I believe there is a link,” Dr. Andrew Revelis said. “I want real research done to show if there’s a link and I want to preserve parent’s rights to protect their children if there is even a shred of doubt,” he said. Adverse reactions to vaccines cause varying degrees of physical harm, from subclinical to profound.

Angie Gallagher is MVFC’s founder, and parent of a vaccine-injured child. “The media seems to go to great lengths to portray us as some huge nefarious organization out to endanger the public – and so it’s their ‘duty’ to expose some plot,” said Gallagher. “What they are not grasping though is: We. Are. The. Public. It’s our health on the line. We are 100% volunteer-run and represent thousands of Minnesotans who have injured loved ones or are facing daycare or workplace mandates. These are our legislators. We are simply having conversations with them about issues we are experiencing that are all to often swept under the rug.”

The upcoming Minneapolis legislative briefing also inevitably garnered the attention of internet hydra Dorit Reiss. Despite not knowing what information will be presented to legislators, Reiss is urging followers to call the Minneapolis Club to shut down the event. Last April pressure from the Minnesota Department of Health forced health safety advocates to change venues at the last minute for the presentation with Age of Autism’s Mark Blaxill to inform Somali families about their health care civil rights.

The Star Tribune had also run a tip from a Bluestem Prairie blog post. That website’s sole proprietor is Sally Jo Sorenson, an admittedly partisan progressive outstate blogger whose “independent enterprise journalism” (copy-and-paste data dumping) is paid for by clients and donations. Sorenson, who says she “writes to understand,” mislabeled Jennifer Larson an “antivaccination activist” while posting several years of Canary Party campaign donations. Sorenson used a Somali child’s photo to lead her piece, which also criticized Blaxill’s evidence-based presentation to Somali parents – but failed to show knowledge of the information provided that day.

One semantic conceit many reporters can’t resist when covering vaccines is claiming the moral high ground by focusing only on health damage from disease. They fail to consider that man-made cures may prove worse than the disease itself, whether through genetics, error or fraud. Medications that are lifesavers to some – penicillin, acetaminophen – paradoxically prove life-threatening to others. Worse, some reporters leverage utilitarian reasoning in an attempt to justify suffering by the few by claiming it benefits the many – by not quantifying human carnage, they allow it to continue unabated.

Such rigid bias is evident in Burcum’s January 30 Tweets about the upcoming legislative briefing:

“Less than a year after MN’s measles outbreak ended. Brazen, reckless and irresponsible.”

“Event not open to media. But any legislator thinking they can stroll in there unseen, Mpls Club is right next door to the new Strib tower.”

One detects a threatening bark to Burcum’s watch-dogging, seemingly to intimidate legislators who wisely seek vaccine information other than the PR generated by the CDC. A conscientious reporter would ask whether legislators’ fact-seeking motivation stems from disturbingly large numbers of constituents reporting negative vaccine experiences – empirical observations diametrically opposed to public health agencies’ rote reassurances of low severity and extreme rarity.

“I can’t fathom why any media outlet would threaten, ridicule and shame mothers of vaccine injured children for simply contacting their legislator to invite them to an event that is important to their family – to share their personal story,” said Kristin Sullivan of VSCM.

“This latest harassment from the Star Tribune represents a pattern of abuse by the mainstream media to silence anyone who is critical of vaccines,” said Kristin Sullivan of VSCM. “The Washington Post recently called someone a dangerous anti-vaxxer just for refusing an ineffective and unsafe flu shot (which many doctors refuse for themselves) and the Boston Herald called for those representing informed consent to be hanged.”

On Saturday evening, February 3 the Star Tribune published a comparatively balanced article by Jeremy Olson, “Minnesota vaccination activists now are seeking political allies.” Jennifer Larson was interviewed, saying her son “developed autism following his infant vaccinations.” Vaxxed director Del Bigtree is scheduled to speak at the legislators’ forum. State legislation discussed there “would require doctors to disclose that neither they nor vaccine manufacturers are liable if they give shots that cause complications, and that scheduled combinations of vaccinations at single office visits haven’t been studied for safety.” Minnesota’s head of immunization was quoted as saying VIS statements already provide adequate information on shots.

Some people believe the oppressed medical minority of vaccine injury victims may actually be a majority, a “compromised generation.” “We are all vaccine injured, to one extent or another,” said Sullivan. “Do you know what you would’ve accomplished had you not been brain damaged by vaccines? Do you know of the vibrant health you would have experienced had you not been poisoned with mercury and formaldehyde day one? Is the eczema, allergies and respiratory infections my baby suffered with a normal occurrence? The glossed over eyes usually staring back at me in response tells me what I already knew. Not even a clue about what has been done to them.”

The Minneapolis/St Paul journalism community is insular and political; many hesitate to publish investigative reporting on certain local corporations. For years St. Paul’s 3M Company largely escaped the negative spotlight, until 2010 when Attorney General Lori Swanson sued Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing over groundwater contamination from their 50 years of dumping perfluorochemicals around the eastern metropolitan area.

In 1980 Minnesota pundit Nick Coleman “wrote a week-long front page series examining the political, cultural and social impact on Rochester and the region of the 800-lb Gorilla in a doctor’s smock known as the Mayo Clinic.” The series, Coleman said, “was certain to displease the notoriously tightly-wound public info managers of the clinic… A day after the series ended, the wife of a prominent Mayo surgeon told me: ‘The clinic has placed a giant fart over your house. It’s been nice knowing you.’ I left Rochester a few months later.”

To understand part of the national news reporting blackout on vaccine-induced autism, one must examine newspaper staff roles. As an editorial board member, Burcum stepped up from production reporter of facts to institutional representative, participating in community events such as judging a congressional hotdish contest or receiving a service award. Sometimes the ethical journalistic lines that separate news reporting from entertainment, community relations and advocacy begin to blur. When cronyism sets in, a journalist can lose ethical perspective and devolve into an instrument of favoritism.

As an editorial writer, Burcum is allowed more leeway with content. Editorial writers are by necessity generalists who lay out a publication’s opinion, support it with facts, and sometimes encourage readers to take a course of action. But the fact-barren content of Burcum’s vaccine reporting parallels how national vaccine policy has become fear-based, not fact-based. The content and tone are that of advertising or PR, not newswriting.

The Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Committee urges its members to “distinguish between advocacy and news reporting”… not to mention public relations for government agencies, industry and trade unions. According to SPJ Code of Ethics, journalists should:

– Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.

– Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance.

– Recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention.

“What is greatly disturbing about the Star Tribune is their pattern of only showing one side to the vaccine issue,” said VSCM’s Sullivan. “Vaccine injuries are real and are not rare, just rarely reported. The Star Tribune never takes a critical look at the people who are actually sick are the ones who received the flu shot this year or in past years. Welcome to ‘1984’ – we live in a dangerous world where the religion of vaccination can’t be questioned.”

“Any preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information.”

“Informed consent means you have the right to be fully informed about the benefits and risks of a medical intervention and the freedom to make a voluntary decision about whether or not to accept those risks without being coerced or punished for the decision you make,” said Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center. “Informed consent applies not just to risks taken by participants in scientific experiments, but also to risks taken by patients under the care of physicians.”

It’s true that Burcum’s writing has won awards. She was a 2015 Pulitzer finalist for “editorials that documented a national shame by taking readers inside dilapidated government schools for Native Americans.” But it’s clear to those who’ve studied vaccine research fraud that Burcum and her Star Tribune colleagues haven’t done all their homework on that life-and-death topic. Here are a few remedial assignments:

Interview local vaccine injury victims or their caregivers with an open mind… and perhaps even a modicum of compassion.

The inhumane reality most reporters don’t consider is the near-complete lack of consumer recourse for victims of vaccine adverse reactions. Most medical professionals don’t recognize it; most don’t report it to VAERS. Few doctors know how to treat vaccine injuries medically. (Most still prescribe Tylenol afterward, which may worsen the reaction by depleting glutathione levels.) Vaccine-induced disabilities can also cripple finances, impoverishing families. The well-intended Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, slow and corrupt, tosses out most applicants.

Another horror is realizing just how willing local journalists have been to create straw man “antivaccine” bogeymen out of already-stressed families, oppressing the medical minority that their professional actions and inactions helped create. What should Star Tribune readers conclude about the integrity of a newsgathering institution – a supposed bastion of free speech and defender of civil rights – that urges censorship and shaming for a private meeting about informed choice in health care?

A free press can keep governments and industry honest and accountable. A truly free press does not censor citizens’ free speech, but offers a place for it. In 2002 Boston Globe reporters found the moral courage to uncover Catholic Church reassignment and cover-up of pedophile priests. Parents of vaccine-injured children have waited decades for journalists to respond ethically and appropriately with honest and fair investigative reporting, but haven’t been sitting on their hands. They’ve been archiving and sharing FOIA’d reports, research studies and analyses showing the extent of vaccine adverse reactions, CDC data fraud, conflicts of interest and outright corruption.

Some Star Tribune journalists are familiar with reporting on very high-stakes public health controversies… such as tobacco science. “Maura Lerner, of the Star Tribune reported the work of Dr. Richard Hurt of the Mayo Clinic who had spent weeks-studying thousands of once-secret tobacco industry documents. In the report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Hurt said that he had no idea that the industry knew these many things about addiction, about how to manipulate nicotine. Hurt is the co-author of the JAMA article with Channing Robertson of Stanford University, another of the prosecution witnesses in the tobacco trial. ‘We had some hints,’ he said, ‘[but] this goes beyond anybody’s wildest dreams about what they knew and when they knew it.’” (Lerner also has worked for Mayo.)

The need for quality health care investigations has never been more critical. A 2016 BMJ report stated that “medical errors... may now be the third-leading cause of death in the United States” — leading to 251,000 deaths annually. “It boils down to people dying from the care that they receive rather than the disease for which they are seeking care,” said Dr. Martin Makary, professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Jill Burcum and Star Tribune colleagues want readers to believe that disease is the only health concern worth reporting, and people harmed by disease should silence themselves. But as long as vaccines exist in attempt to prevent disease, vaccine adverse reactions are sadly inevitable – “unavoidably unsafe,” as the U.S. Supreme Court declared.

A few glimmers of hope about acknowledging individual vaccine response are on the public health research horizon:

“The principles of ‘personalized medicine’ apply equally to ‘personalized vaccinology’…the choice of the vaccine administered should take into account critical characteristics of the individual... Not all individuals respond in the same way to vaccines.”

Shouting down vaccine injury victims will not silence them; their documented medical dysfunctions will still remain. The only op-ed that can silence vaccine injury victims is one that pressures vaccine developers to study, treat and prevent vaccine injuries – and ultimately end them. Until honest causality research is performed, informed choice is consumers’ only fair option to protect themselves and their families from government-mandated products that paradoxically are proving hazardous to health.

(Coincidentally, the Society of Professional Journalists Freedom of Information committee is accepting nominations for its Black Hole Award – “to highlight the most heinous violations of the public’s right to know” and “all attention to those who would interfere with openness and transparency.” Nominations must be submitted by February 16.)

###

(Age of Autism contributing editorNancy Hokkanen is a member of Health Choice and the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota. Her first employment in 1977 was at a weekly newspaper.)

Comments

A second postscript, about duplicity by Minnesota’s Department of Health:
“But just days before the [3M contamination] trial was to begin, Minnesota Department of Health officials said their own analysis of health data showed no apparent health effects from PFCs, a finding that 3M attorneys called a ‘game changer.’”
“Hennepin County District Judge Kevin Burke agreed to delay the trial for one week, and the 3M attorneys’ witness list made it clear that they intended to use the Health Department scientists to make their case.
“[Minnesota Attorney General Lori] Swanson took a swipe at Health Department officials on Tuesday, saying she was blind-sided by their report.
“‘The swamp that was referred to in the last election is not limited to Washington,’ she said. ‘We have our own problems in Minnesota with regulatory agencies that are captive to the industries that they are supposed to regulate.’”http://www.startribune.com/jury-selection-in-3m-trial-begins-today/474581573/

Very glad to hear about the meeting outcome. I am 100 percent pro examining vaccine safety and strongly against vaccine mandates of any kind. Anyone working toward this goal especially in this climate is heroic in my opinion.
As to my earlier remarks, I don't think references to Killary can be said to be non partisan. Any right leaning points of view in the comments are well tolerated it seems to me (and yes I have read with website frequently). The same can not be said for the other end of the spectrum. My point was that just ragging on Obama/Hillary which has happened in comments a lot and not taking in the foibles to put it mildly of Trump and company is just as one sided as this pathetic reporter refusing to really look at both sides of the vaccine safety issue. Being concerned about vaccine safety doesn't mean you are a Fox viewer. I have a right to be here just as much as any of you. Remember that as we all have strength in numbers. We have at least one point of view in common.

A postscript: Attendees of yesterday's Minneapolis bipartisan legislative briefing are calling it a great success. Many state legislators heard the panel members' presentations and useful connections were made regarding vaccine informed choice.

No gate crashers from trolls or media. I heard that one invited legislator responded saying he would bring the Star Tribune's Jill Burcum as his guest, but he was told she could not attend and he was a no-show.

Again, with all due respect ... my comments regarding Saul Alinsky were NOT directed at Hillary .. they were directed at the pharmaceutical industry, government public health bureaucracies and a very compliant main-stream media .. who regularly employ Saul's "rules" regarding those critical of our vastly overly aggressive vaccine policies ... especially those few I highlighted .. "ridicule is man's most potent weapon, pick the target, freeze it, personalize the attack and polarize it, isolate it" ..

I don't know how regularly YOU visit AoA .. but .. to suggest there is "constant Hillary bashing" on AoA .. is an allegation that is grossly unwarranted and uniformed.

Person. Most people here are primarily interested in stopping this vaccine injury holocaust. Politics is only of interest in this regard. So thank you for inadvertently bringing Hillary's philosophy to light. I knew about her 'Grandma knows best' tweet, but hadn't realised she held personalised criticism and ridicule in such high regard.

Wow thank God we don't have to worry about Sol Alinsky's agenda with Trump's stellar appointees. That's one less thing to worry about.
I liked Nancy's article but stop all the constant Hillary bashing. Your guy is destroying our country.

'The sol Alinsky stuff seems like old anti Obamaism ... if Hillary had appointed these people your posts would be all about how bad the Democrats are and how corrupt."

My comments were directed to answer Kristin Sullivan of VSCM .. who stated: “I can’t fathom why any media outlet would threaten, ridicule and shame mothers of vaccine injured children for simply contacting their legislator to invite them to an event that is important to their family – to share their personal story,”

My answer was to simply state Saul Alinsky's well-known "Rules for Radicals" as a plausible explanation. After all .. I didn't fabricate those rules ... they are Saul's .. not mine.

As to YOUR introduction of Hillary Clinton into my comments .. Clinton biographer Barbara Olson wrote in her 1999 book Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton that, "The contents of Hillary's thesis, .. (based upon Saul's rules) .. and why she would want it hidden from public view, have long been the subject of intense interest. Most likely, she does not want the American people to know the extent to which she internalized and assimilated the beliefs and methods of Saul Alinsky."[12]

I think it safe to assume .. unlike Hillary Clinton .. President Trump would have absolutely no reason to be accused of having "internalization and assimilation of the beliefs and methods of Saul Allinsky .. when making his appointees. I suspect the same could not be said of Hillary's appointees.

PS. I liked the very recent photo op of Trump surrounded by hedge fund managers. Nothing says populist like palling around with a bunch of Wall Streeters. Hey I thought he hated him and felt they were ripping off the American public? Sad!

This journalist is shockingly arrogant and biased.
The sol Alinsky stuff seems like old anti Obamaism. You have your guy in there now. Great appointees! Good work on autism. If Hillary had appointed these people your posts would be all about how bad the Democrats are and how corrupt. With Trump the silence is deafening or, poor guy, no one will let him appoint who he really wants. He's a victim. This point of view is as biased as this pathetic reporter.

Why is the Star Tribune's Jill Burcum so determined to discover what information will be presented at today’s private legislative briefing, despite the fact that her editorial board has repeatedly refused to meet with the same people hosting this event?

Terrific article , of many interesting points by N. Hokkanen. Thankyou , very much. And thanks to bob moffit for his information.
It is interesting to read about the Mayo clinic, but in their defense, I can add a sidelight. I have run into evidence from different sources that some of the doctors there are very much aware of the problem of mercury, including one who was warning his own relatives in India not to eat fish. This i s something for them to be proud of. Nearly all mainstream doctors are unaware of mercury, while in the meantime the integrative medicine practitioners are surging ahead with new information about heavy metals being involved in hundreds of medical disorders.

"Fact or Fable" Not in the smash and grab headlines ,but some NHS staff "Throwing a feejee " " A tantrum" over commercialised offer of universal flu vaccinations . Some long serving staff spotted swaping chamber pot/ bed pan duties for meal time support work instead .
Two Soups Sketch -Youtube
Recent changes to womens retirement age with broken contract/promises having a visible impact on NHS and Private nurses .
Vaccination health and safety risk assessments . Not fit for purpose .
As frequently described in the NHS corridors, cloak rooms, canteens, and car parks. As about as much use as a single pringle from a whole tub, not fit to be on the NHS menu "Other types of potato chips and the like available" They have been on "Extra Time "for some considerable time, but time up, game over . Time for A Wee Doch an doris by Harry Lauder 1912 youtube
Deoch-an -doris -The parting dram to be offered to guests before they leave!

Jenny, not only does the BBC not dare to express concerns about vaccines, but I noticed that vaccines were promoted in no fewer than three programmes on Radio 4 yesterday alone, and this has also been the case on many other days. Until recently, I never heard vaccines mentioned! There's a serious propaganda drive going on.

In the UK these days no mainstream news outlet DARES to express any concerns about vaccines. The supposed to be independent BBC is in thrall to the Government Health Department and tax sponsored so called science.

I was delighted (NOT) to hear from the BBC, we oldies are to get a lovely new annual flu shot called Fluad, containing what was called an 'enhanced' adjuvent. Oh Joy!! This we are told, will make the flu vaccine more effective for our age group. It has been officially admitted flu deaths, co-morbidities and hospital admissions in the over 65s were not reduced by those much vaunted free blanket vaccinations during the past few years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42964393
Quote:-
"NHS to use new type of flu jab next winter.
Doctors in England are being asked to order a different type of flu vaccine in time for next winter.
NHS England says over-65s should be offered a newly licensed jab called Fluad, which experts say should give better immunity to this age group.
It has an added ingredient designed to create a stronger immune response.
This is important for elderly people, because their immune systems are often weaker and respond less well to some vaccines, say experts.
Fluad has been available in Europe for years but was only approved in the UK in August 2017."

Being a cynical so-and so I attempted to find out what this wondrous new 'ingredient' actually was. I had a nasty suspicion it might be Squalene. Yes the same discredited oily adjuvent suspected of causing narcolepsy in children vaccinated with the H1N1 Swine flu vaccine a few years ago. At the least it causes pain at the injection site. The UK Government wonderful 'hype' called this adjuvent MF59. Ah yes very mysterious and sort of scientific sounding . I got the correct info from the CDC site which describes MF59 as "an oil-in-water emulsion of squalene oil. "

Last year I received a single dose flu jab with no mercury preservative. There's NO WAY I will accept ANY vaccine containing Squalene, but the following report about deaths in Italy attributed to Fluad would have been more than enough to put me off this vaccine, which is admitted not to have been properly tested in elderly persons.

http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h116.full
Deaths after Fluad flu vaccine and the epidemic of panic in Italy
BMJ 2015; 350 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h116 (Published 14 January 2015)Cite this as: BMJ 2015;350:h116
As the flu season reaches its peak, we report the detrimental effects of poorly managed risk communication.1
On 27 November 2014, the Italian Medicines Agency suspended, as a precautionary measure, the use of two batches of Fluad flu vaccine after three post-vaccination deaths (in people aged 87, 79, and 68 years) reported through the Network of Pharmacovigilance were deemed to be associated with the vaccine. …"

My attempts to report this on the Facebook Jabs site were almost immediately removed as 'spam' . In the UK it seems ignorance has got to be bliss!!

“I can’t fathom why any media outlet would threaten, ridicule and shame mothers of vaccine injured children for simply contacting their legislator to invite them to an event that is important to their family – to share their personal story,” said Kristin Sullivan of VSCM."

Unfortunately .. those media outlets who "threaten, ridicule and shame mothers of vaccine injured children" are simply following Sol Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" .. such as ..

* RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)

* RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)

Sol's rule #12 explains why the .."Star Tribune represents a pattern of abuse by the mainstream media to silence anyone who is critical of vaccines,” said Kristin Sullivan of VSCM. “The Washington Post recently called someone a dangerous anti-vaxxer just for refusing an ineffective and unsafe flu shot (which many doctors refuse for themselves) and the Boston Herald called for those representing informed consent to be hanged.”

* RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people
-----------------------------------------
In any event ... I wholehearted and enthusiastically agree with Nancy's plea that .... "quality health care investigations have never been more critical. A 2016 BMJ report stated that “medical errors... may now be the third-leading cause of death in the United States” — leading to 251,000 deaths annually. “It boils down to people dying from the care that they receive rather than the disease for which they are seeking care,” said Dr. Martin Makary, professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine."

Think about that for a moment .. the third leading cause of death in the United States .. 251,000 ANNUALLY .. of people "dying from the care that they receive rather than the disease for which they are seeking care"!!!! And that startling figure does not include vaccines and the damage they contribute.

Yes ... QUALITY HEALTH CARE INVESTIGATIONS HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE CRITICAL .. as we have EPIDEMICS .. such as .. the latest opioid epidemic that is causing thousands of deaths a year from addiction to various "overly prescribed drugs" the pharmaceutical industry that vowed to all "stakeholders" .. doctors, FDA, etc .. the drugs were "non-addictive".

Yet ,, with ALL these indicators that serious "health care investigations" are CRITICAL .. our main stream media prefers to follow Sol Alinsky's Rules for Radicals .. than the professional responsibilities of a "free press" upon which "we the people" .. and our Founding Fathers .. so heavily relied upon.